Three more appeared in the majors by the end of the year, and the following season, after signing the now-42-year-old Paige, Cleveland went on to win the World Series.
On July 5, former Newark Eagles star Larry Doby became the second Black big leaguer by suiting up for the Cleveland Indians. He forged a secret arrangement with Robinson in August 1945, and shook the baseball world with his official announcement in October.įollowing an outstanding season with the minor league Montreal Royals in 1946, Robinson officially integrated major league baseball by manning first base for the Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Records exist of an abbreviated game between two Black teams as far back as 1855, and by the end of the decade there were several African American clubs in the New York area.Īs it turned out, Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey was already scouting African Americans, ostensibly for a new Negro league but in reality for his major league team. Formation of Baseball’s Color LineĪs the expanding popularity of baseball in the United States led to the formation of amateur clubs in the second half of the 19th century, African Americans were among those joining the action. However, Jackie Robinson’s integration of baseball in 1947 prompted a slow but irreversible influx of talent to the majors, and the remaining Negro League teams generally folded by the 1960s. Reformulated several times with new leagues and owners, Negro League baseball enjoyed periods of success in the early 1920s and again after the Great Depression. Subsequent African American players found their greatest opportunities with traveling teams until 1920, when Rube Foster launched the Negro National League.
OOTP BASEBALL 18 TEXT APPEARING BEFORE PLAY PROFESSIONAL
The National Association of Amateur Base Ball Players rejected African American membership in 1867, and in 1876, owners of the professional National League adopted a “gentleman’s agreement” to keep Black players out. Negro League Baseball got its start thanks to the increasing popularity of two things after the Civil War: baseball and segregation.
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